After the recent victory of the Lativan MEP Valdis Dombrovskis, who became Latvian prime minister, and after Finnish MEP Alexander Stubb becoming the foreign minister of his country, this is the third time in 14 month that the European institutions help to promote politicians into important national offices.

And I assume that this has happened more than just three times during the last term of the European Parliament and the Commission, so if you have more examples from your countries, I'd be glad hearing about them!

Update: Flasher reminds in the comments that the Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves was also an MEP until October 2006.

The Swedish (Cecilia Malmström) and Finnish (Astrid Thors) European affairs Ministers are former MEPs, as well as the Belgian foreign minister Karel De Gucht who was an MEP in the 80's, the Dutch transport minister was an MEP until two years ago, and I am sure there are some Italian examples too.